'One-Dog Canoe': Composer Dan Nass brings children's book to life in new chamber work

Editor's note: Dan Nass is an employee of Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media.

To prepare for his latest piece, St. Paul-based composer Dan Nass headed outdoors to immerse himself in the sounds of nature: leaves rustling in the wind, birds calling from the treetops, summer choirs of stridulating insects.

Then his research took him back indoors to that great repository of global soundscapes: YouTube.

"I didn't know what a beaver sounded like, so I looked it up," Nass says. "The animal that surprised me the most was the moose — I thought it would grunt, but it actually moos like a cow!"

The reason for this deep dive into the calls of the wild? A commission from Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra for the 40th season of Kinder Konzerts, a series of one-hour performances designed for preschool-aged children.

This year the organization tasked Nass with creating a musical setting of One-Dog Canoe by award-winning children's book author and Minnesota native Mary Casanova. The story — inspired by Casanova's adventures in the North Woods — follows a young girl and her dog as they pick up an ever-expanding cast of lively animal passengers in a small red canoe.

Though he'd previously written music for dance and theatrical productions, composing a piece for children proved to be an exciting — and challenging — new endeavor for Nass.

"Part of the stipulation for the commission was that you had to use one instrument from every family," he says. "It was hard not to be influenced by [Prokofiev's] Peter and the Wolf. There are definitely some instruments in One-Dog Canoe that represent animals: the beaver is a bassoon, the loon is a flute, the wolf is a viola."

The music doesn't always directly mimic the calls of particular animals. Rather, Nass attempts to convey movements and moods in sound, as he does with his favorite animal in the piece: the bear.

"I chose to depict the bear as happy, curious and, in my head, full of honey," Nass said in a recent interview on the Minnesota Orchestra website. "In fact, the performance indication I use for the 'bear section' is 'lumbering, drunk on honey.'"

One-Dog Canoe also marks another surprising first for the composer.

"I'd never written in a key signature before," he says. "This piece starts in E-flat, for no good reason other than I liked the way the horn line sounded. Then the key bounces around."

After studying with Peter Hamlin at St. Olaf College, Nass earned a master's degree from University of Missouri-Kansas City and a doctorate of musical arts in composition from University of Texas at Austin before returning to Minnesota, where he now works at American Public Media as an associate producer for Pipedreams.

Beyond his formal training in composition, classic rock has been a major influence throughout Nass' oeuvre. Older listeners may recognize a familiar chord progression in his latest work.

"Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not, Pink Floyd's 'Shine On, You Crazy Diamond' ends up in almost all my pieces to an embarrassing degree. It was even in my dissertation. You'll hear it in the chords played by the marimba during the 'wolf section' of One-Dog Canoe."

This has been a busy season for Nass, who is currently collaborating on the immersive theatrical piece Swede Hollow Ghost Sonata (which runs in St. Paul through Sept. 29) and also writing a new work for Boston-based ensemble Hub New Music.

The world premiere of One-Dog Canoe will include a pre-concert 'Sound Factory' where children can try out various instruments and learn basic musical concepts. They will be invited to sit on stage at Orchestra Hall during the performance, which will include a small ensemble of Minnesota Orchestra musicians. The story will be narrated by Classical MPR's education specialist, Katie Condon.

And yes, there will be a dog — Casanova's canine companion, Nellie — and a canoe at the premiere.

Casanova, who will be hearing the piece for the first time, plans to sit in the front row with her 2-year-old granddaughter, Olivia.

"It's a really special event because One-Dog Canoe has found so many fans and followers around our state," Casanova recently told the International Falls Journal. "It has been turned into a play at Stages Theatre, a musical a few years ago in Plymouth, Minn., and now, to have music uniquely composed for it, is such an honor."

After months of working on the piece, Nass, likewise, looks forward to the premiere.

"It's been so frantic, between preparing the score and parts, getting to rehearsal and, of course, writing the thing. It didn't truly sink in that this piece would be heard at Orchestra Hall until our final rehearsal, when I could take a breath and realize how cool it is to hear my own work there, after spending decades visiting as an audience member."

'One-Dog Canoe' premieres at Orchestra Hall at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra website.